Emergence of competitive cheerleading may ease Title IX controversy

Competitive cheer, as many call it now, is recognized for the sport it is, an attitude boosted by the influence of the controversial Title IX, which requires schools to offer equal athletic opportunities to women.

By DON DRUMM

Uticaod

By DON DRUMM

Posted Jun. 21, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 21, 2009 at 9:03 PM

By DON DRUMM

Posted Jun. 21, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 21, 2009 at 9:03 PM

About 10 years ago I attended a regional cheerleading competition at HCCC. I was blown away by the athleticism of the participants, and wrote that their dancing and gymnastics talents were wasted just cheering for the boys. One of the judges disagreed with me; she said the corny cheers and the supporting role was part and parcel of the activity.

That’s beginning to change. Competitive cheer, as many call it now, is recognized for the sport it is, an attitude boosted by the influence of the controversial Title IX, which requires schools to offer equal athletic opportunities to women.

I’ve never been comfortable with the rules of Title IX, though I applaud its aim. If a high school or public university has a male basketball or soccer team, those sports should certainly be offered to females. And their coaches’ salaries should be roughly equal, and the road trips should be to equally exotic locations with equally plush accommodations.

But to insist, particularly for private colleges, that an equal percentage of men and women should be playing sports, is not right. Does the government insist that an equal number of men and women be taking French, or playing in the orchestra? Why must you add three women’s teams to balance the 90-member football squad?

Prospective college students interested in, say, anthropology, won’t select a school that has a week anthro department, or none at all. It’s no different in sports.

The quota system has caused some colleges to drop worthwhile sports such as wrestling. But it’s gotten a little easier for athletic directors to cope. Some of them are counting cheer, predominantly female, as a competitive sport.

Quinnipiac University in Connecticut has caused controversy by trying to drop women’s volleyball and elevating the cheer team to varsity status. It serves far more students at much less cost, but the Women’s Sports Foundation sees it as a setback for women in Olympic sports. It may be a while before the NCAA recognizes and starts governing cheer, but it’s coming.

Another issue involving cheer came up a year ago. Parents on girls’ basketball teams claimed equality would only be served if their little darlings were exhorted by the cheerleading squad, just as the boys team was. It sounds like a reasonable position until you realize the cheerleaders are performers, too, and deserve to have the largest possible audience, which at most schools means boys basketball games. The choir isn’t asked to sing at chess club meetings. Some people would make the cheerleaders pawns for their own political agendas.

It’s time to stop pigeonholing high school students and assuming that unless a student plays a major varsity sport, he or she is on the road to couch-potatohood. Some of the most enthusiastic and athletic high school students I’ve seen in the last few years were the Cossack dancers in a production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

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As competitive cheer grows, look for the girls and women to perform at fewer sports events and take their gymnastics and dance moves to shows and meets where they’re the main attraction.